The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-03-10
Stick to the Farm.

Had we the ear of every young farmer
in the Southern States, We would say to
him, and repeat it over and over again,
"stick to the farm" Enuoble your call.
ing. Educate yourself for it, and by
judicious experiments, close observations
and untiring labor and pains taking,
make it the source of mental improve
ment, pleasure and profit. When we say
educate yourself for it, we do not mean
education in the schools and colleges,
though we think that in these far more
attention should be given TO the branches
connected with agriculture. We mean
tt.t the young farmer should, by q
judicious course of reading and thinking
in the intervals of labor, acquire the in.
telligence that is indispensable in his
calling. Let him read attentively short
elementary works in geology, chemistry
and plant physiology. The necessary
books can be got for not more than two
dollars. Ha7ing laid the foundation in
these, let him continue the course through
life by subscribing for one or two good
newspapers. We don't mean agricultu-
raj papers which treat of nothing but
the one subject, but good weekly newspa.
pera, from which he can store his mind
with information on all topics. Nearly
all the leading weeklies have depart.
ment devoted to agriculture, conducted
by a competent editor. A society Of
young farmers in each neighborhood
would be most valuable adjunct.
Let him make experiments of his own,
cautiously, and daily learn something by
observation. It is q certain fact that
every acre of land, if it has medium
subsoil and is pretty we'll drained, can,
by careful tillsge and judicious use of
home mtde fertilizers, be made to yield
twice the quantity Of cotton or corn that
it yields with the ordinary tillage. A
careful selection of seed alone will always
increase the crop, and if persevered in
may double the yield and give pernla-
nent variety, valuable not only to the
producer, but to his fellow farmers. Let
the young farmer give his attention to
these things, adding daily to his knowl.
edge, adding yearly to his profits. 1t is
undeniable that agriculture is the civil
izer of mankind and the ultimate source
of the wealth of all nations. Let every
young farmer, then, be proud of his call
ing, and seek to adorn it.
We sre aware that spirit Of unrest is
abroad among the young farmers of the
South. For some years their labors have
been hard, and their profits small and
slow to accumulate. Many Of them
fancy that surer, shorter, less iaborious
road to competence may be found in the
professions, in trade, or in other kinds of
labor. In this they are mistaken. The
depression is widespread-wide as the
civilized world it permeates every ayo.
cation, every rank Of society. The pro.
fessions are oyercrowded. Here and
there is professional man who acquires
competence and fame; but for every one
of these there are scores who exc out
meager subsistence, very many of them
not knowing how they are to pay their
board or house rent at the end of the
month nor their grocer's and butchers
bills at the end of the week. One reads
and hears of the successful ones, but not
of the others just as one reads of the
few who draw the big lottery prizes
among the news items of the public
prints, but the names of the thousands
who draw the blanks-never!
And in the mercantile business-few
young farmers can form q conception Of
the physical and mental labor the
merchant and his clerks and other em.
ployees must undergo. For the former,
days of toll and sleepless nights Of
anxious thought For the latter, days
of unremitting slavish work, uneasy
doubts as to what the future, with the
vicissitudes of trade, may bringI Home.
less and without means or employment (!
Can our young farmer friends fancy the
full meaning of these words? And how
many merchants succeed in their bust.
ness? We have seen it stated, by good
authority, that not more than five out of
a hundred retire from business with q
competence. The other ninety-6ve see
their capital slowly melt to nothingness,
or is swept away at one fell swoop that
briggs bankruptcy and ruin to the mer-
chant and loss of position to his en-
ployees.
And what of the other forms of labor
in which millions are engaged? What
of the great army of wage.workers-is
peace, plenty and contentment found in
their ranks? Is there no unrest there?
What of the privation they and their
families have endured for years? And
remember that most of them are without
homes of their own. What of the ex-
actions of which they complain whether
Justly or upjustly we shall not stop to
inquire)? Consider the strike and lock-
outs of the present decade, the thousands
thrown out Of employment, the days,
weeks, months and years of enforced
idleness. And remember that every
strike and lockout is a sharp two.edged
sword that cuts both ways. Employers
and employees slike suffer.
Let the young farmer compare lots
with all these-the professional men, the
merchants and their employees, the
wage workers and their employers. His
homestead is his own, safe to him and
his beyond peradventure. It is his cap.